Batteries of the future: How cotton and seawater might power our devices

[Wicked Blue]

BBC Future
By Chris Baraniuk
8th November 2023

Zip. The power's out. But on a street in India, there's a cash machine still happily dispensing banknotes. Thanks, in part, to burnt cotton. For this cash machine has a backup battery inside it – a battery that contains carbon from carefully combusted cotton.

"The exact process is secret, to be honest with you," says Inketsu Okina, chief intelligence officer at PJP Eye, the Japanese firm that made the battery. He's not joking, either. "The temperature is secret and atmosphere is secret. Pressure is secret," he continues, cagily.

Okina does say that a high temperature is required, above 3,000C (5,432F). And that 1kg (2.2lbs) of cotton yields 200g (7oz) of carbon – with just 2g (0.07oz) needed for each battery cell. The firm bought a shipment of cotton in 2017 and still hasn't used all of it, says Okina.

In the batteries developed by the company, together with researchers at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, carbon is used for the anode – one of the two electrodes between which flow ions, the charged particles in batteries. Ions move in one direction when the battery is charging and in the other direction when it releases energy to a device. The majority of batteries use graphite as an anode but PJP Eye argues their approach is more sustainable, since they can make anodes using waste cotton from the textile industry.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231108-batteries-of-the-future-how-cotton-and-seawater-might-power-our-devices

[Walleye]

1. That's so interesting. I believe science will have the answers if the political will is there

It’s hard to believe how mainstream Republicans are so anti-science now.

[Wicked Blue]

2. There is also a huge safety issue with exploding lithium batteries

which wasn't mentioned in the article.

I fervently hope safer, sustainable alternatives are developed.

[Walleye]

3. I'm sure it is possible to solve this problem if we could cut through the bullshit, and the oil company self interest

[NNadir]

4. A Battery Is A Device That Wastes Primary Energy.

The second law of thermodynamics is not subject to repeal by popularity.

It follows that if primary energy is dirty - which it is overwhelmingly - a battery Is a device that makes things worse, not better.

The enthusiasm for batteries is at best disturbing, at worst, tragic.

[cstanleytech]

6. So in essense if we want to continue to use the same amount of energy we need a carbon trapping heatsink?

If thats the case we are screwed.

Edit: Not to mention methane.

[NNadir]

7. Should a time come where primary energy is clean...

...energy storage might be acceptable under limited conditions.

The least destructive way to store energy, say for load leveling at a nuclear plant, is as thermal energy, for instance, a molten salt with high heat capacity.

If we capture exergy fron the high temperatures available from nuclear fuels, to produce a very clean fuel like dimethyl ether, this in affect is stored energy, obtained from what night have been waste heat. This idea, called "process intensification" is now widely discussed in engineering literature.

There is a solution to this problem, I believe, but whether it actually is embrace that solution seems somewhat improbable.

[cstanleytech]

8. Regarding heat as storage do you think it might be worth looking into incorporating tech to harness

the heat stored in places such as parking lots and roads? They do seem to absorb a lot of heat in the summer after all.

[Woodwizard]

5. I see so many articles on new battery tech.

And then nothing, I hope this will be a breakthrough looks like it may since they are doing some manufacturing not just lab results.

It would be great to have a sustainable high cycle battery, would be a game changer for stand alone solar installs if the price point is there.